The Saint Joseph's men's basketball team (7-6; 1-1 A-10) will travel to Fordham (6-9; 0-2) on Saturday, January 7 for a nationally-televised contest on the NBC Sports Network. Game time is 3 p.m. from Rose Hill Gymnasium.

The Saint Joseph's Sports Network broadcast will be heard on 610 Sports with streaming audio on SJUHawks.com.

NBC Sports will have live coverage on Saturday of the Saint Joseph’s vs. Fordham basketball game beginning at 3pm EST on NBC Sports Network. Fans can catch all the action in spectacular high definition via NBC Sports online at NBCSports.com/Live, or through the NBC Sports app which is available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire.

GAME NOTES• The Hawks lost their first game without leading scorer Shavar Newkirk, 88-58, at Rhode Island. James Demery had season-highs of 17 points and eight rebounds in his second game back after missing 10 games with an injury.• Shavar Newkirk ranked third in the Atlantic 10 in scoring (21.2) before suffering his season-ending injury. • The next A-10 victory will be the 200th conference win of Phil Martelli’s career.• This is SJU’s second straight games against a “Rams” team as they faced Rhode Island on Tuesday. • Today’s game is part of the Jesuit Basketball Spotlight, which raises awareness of Jesuit education.

LAST TIME OUT: Rhode Island made 16 three-point field goals as the Rams defeated Saint Joseph’s, 88-58, at the Ryan Center. The contest was the first for SJU without leading scorer Shavar Newkirk, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the win over GW. James Demery, who returned last week after a 10-game absence because of injury, led the Hawks with 17 points and eight rebounds. Charlie Brown scored 11 points and Markell Lodge notched his first game in double figures with 10 points. Rhode Island led in the early going, 16-9, but the Hawks went on a 7-0 run, tying the game on a dunk from Javon Baumann at 9:50. SJU took a brief 18-17 lead after a pair of free throws by Chris Clover, but it would be all Rhode Island the rest of the half, and the game. The Rams outscored Saint Joseph’s, 29-8, over the final eight minutes of the period, raining down eight three pointers in that span, taking a 46-26 lead at the break. URI went 9-for-17 from three-point range in the first half, while SJU managed just 1-of-4 from beyond the arc. Saint Joseph’s came within 18 points at the start of the second half, but that would be the smallest margin the rest of the way. The Rams kept it going, increasing its lead to 66-39 at 11:13. SJU made just 25 percent from three-point range (2-for-8) and hit 12-of-25 from the foul line while committing a season-high 17 turnovers.

LAST TIME VS. FORDHAM: Shavar Newkirk and Lamarr Kimble each set new career highs in scoring to lead Saint Joseph's past Fordham, 82-60, at Rose Hill Gym on Feb. 6, 2016. Newkirk led all scorers with 17 points, while Kimble chipped in with 13 of his own. DeAndre' Bembry posted a double-double, finishing with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists on the day, while Isaiah Miles scored 13 points, all in the second half as the Hawks pushed their road record to a nation’s best 8-0. Newkirk made the most of his homecoming to New York, connecting on 6-of-9 field goals, while making 3-for-4 from three-point range. Kimble hit 4-of-7 from the field, while making three three-pointers.

DEVASTATING BLOW: Junior Shavar Newkirk will miss the rest of the season after suffering a torn ACL in his left knee in the win over GW (Dec. 30) and will undergo surgery. Newkirk keyed the Hawks’ comeback from 12 points down in the first half, and was about to score his sixth straight point on a fast break, when he went down with the non-contact injury. He finished the game with 10 points and SJU won, 68-63. Newkirk is the Hawks’ leading scorer, averaging 20.3 points per game through 12 games. He scored 20-plus points in all but four games this season, reaching a new career-high of 28 points. Newkirk topped the Hawks in free-throw percentage (.847) and averaged 3.5 assists per game, while hitting 46.6 percent of his field goal attempts. His scoring average was 13 points more than last season’s (8.0). “This is certainly disappointing to all of us in the Saint Joseph’s basketball program. Our thoughts and concern go out to Shavar and his family,” said Phil Martelli. “We're fully supportive of him, academically and socially, and as he makes his return to the basketball court, bigger, stronger and better than ever. His teammates have expressed the same level of support.”

HE’S BACK: Ironically for the Hawks, on the day (Dec. 30) that junior James Demery made his return to the court after missing 10 games, Shavar Newkirk went down with his season-ending injury. Demery played in the season opener on Nov. 12 but suffered a stress fracture in his left foot that sidelined him for the next 10 contests. The junior had nine points, four rebuonds and four assists off the bench in his return to action against GW and followed that with 17 points and eight rebounds at Rhode Island. Demery was a starter as a freshman and was the sixth man for the 2016 A-10 champion team, averaging 8.1 points per game. His return also gives SJU’s defense a boost as he has been regarded as the team’s best defender over the past few seasons.

SEEKING 200: The next conference win will be the 200th A-10 victory of Phil Martelli’s career. His first Atlantic 10 win was a 67-65 decision over La Salle on January 20, 1996 at The Palestra, which came in the second conference game he coached. His introduction to the A-10 was a tall task as the Hawks faced top-ranked UMass on January 10, 1996. The Hawks put a scare into the Minutemen, stretching the game into overtime, but UMass prevailed, 94-89, in front of a sellout crowd at SJU’s Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse. Martelli owns the most conference wins of any active coach, and the second most all-time in the league behind Temple’s John Chaney (296).

START IT UP: Sophomore Chris Clover made his first career start at Rhode Island in place of Shavar Newkirk and will start again today. James Demery will make his second start of the year in place of Nick Robinson, who replaced Demery while he was sidelined.

THE GOOD GUY: Phil Martelli has been named the recipient of this year’s “Good Guy Award” from the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association, which will be presented at the 113th annual PSWA banquet on Feb. 3 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill. Martelli, always helpful and accessible to the media in good times and bad, capped off a strong 2015-16 season by storming through the Atlantic 10 Tournament, to win the Hawks' second title in three years and earn an eighth seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Hawks then defeated No. 9 Cincinnati for their first NCAA Tournament win since 2004 before bowing to Oregon in the second round, finishing at a stellar 28-8. The conference title was the second in the last three years for Martelli, who is also a four-time A-10 Coach of the Year.

INJURY BUG: The Hawks are certainly jinxed with significant injuries this year, with the latest setback being Shavar Newkirk’s torn ACL. The streak of bad luck began this summer when sophomore Pierfrancesco Oliva, a starter in 2015-16, was diagnosed with a knee condition that is causing him to miss the year. James Demery suffered a stress fracture in the first game on Nov. 12 that forced him to miss 10 games. Freshman Lorenzo Edwards has played in only one game this year and is battling a shoulder injury that has sidelined him indefinitely.

CHARLIE IN CHARGE: Freshman Charlie Brown was one of the catalysts in SJU’s win over GW, as he scored 13 points on 6-for-9 shooting. His three-pointer at 2:25 gave the Hawks the lead for good. Brown scored 11 points at Rhode Island to give him five straight games in double figures.

LOOKING AHEAD: The Hawks return home on Jan. 10 to host George Mason and then Richmond on Jan. 14.